


The Sharpest Smiles

by dendraica



Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Gruffnut is a conniving son of a jackal and Ruff hates him, I hope we see more of him in the next season though because he makes an interesting bad guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 01:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11453430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dendraica/pseuds/dendraica
Summary: Ruffnut Thorston has a list of problems so long she can't even keep track. One of them is related to her.





	The Sharpest Smiles

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Though nothing happens, Gruffnut gets just a bit gross toward Ruff near the end. *shakes head slowly* That boy ain't right.

They were five years old when they met Aunt Hazelnut’s son for the first time, a taller boy with long hair that hung in his eyes. He was just a year older than them and he had an unnerving grin when he glanced at her and her brother.  
It was probably supposed to be friendly, her brother would say later. Tuff liked to give people more chances than Ruffnut did, especially if they were family.

Ruff liked to give family member chances too, but they just kept doing this annoying thing where they proved themselves untrustworthy and completely awful. 

That grin for example? That wasn’t a nice or friendly grin. It was an appraising one, a calculating one. 

The grin of a fox who’d just spotted an unlatched chicken coop.

There were enough crooks and pirates in their big family for her to have noticed it all on her own. Those same people - uncles, aunts, older cousins - had cared enough to make damn sure she could spot a creep like that from yards away. 

It was an education she would come to value in time.

——

Gruffnut could con her brother out of his own shadow, it seemed.

One would almost think it was beneath him, taking advantage of the boy’s goodwill and trust like he was. Yet, if any shame ever was directed at Gruffnut, it certainly had no effect. He just kept on doing it, regardless of consequence.

For instance, if the ill-tempered hungover wastrel sack who claimed to have sired them gave Tuff money to buy him a cask of ale? It made no never-mind to Gruffnut if his cousin would be beaten later for ‘losing’ it. 

This particular time, all he had to do was tell Tuffnut his dad would thrash him even harder if he missed such an easy opportunity to 'double’ his father’s cash.

To the surprise of no-one but Tuff, it was the same result as last year; Gruffnut was unexpectedly gone by sundown. And Ruff had to sit downstairs by the fire while her brother wailed and pleaded how sorry he was over the sound of their father’s belt. 

She had to do something other than let this go on, especially after no adult seemed interested in interfering. Aunt Hazelnut was the worst of them all; her plump cheery face glowing as she waved responsibility off her boy’s shoulders. 

“If someone’s dumb enough to believe him, that’s their fault for being fooled.”

Defeated, Ruff had gone up to their room afterwards with a pot of their mother’s salve, to do what she could for her twin. Her hands were shaking, and she nearly dropped the jar as her eyes catalogued the damage.

His welts were vivid and dark - an unpleasant purplish red against pale skin. Ruffnut saw Tuff’s clothing, torn and crumpled aside on the floor. As always, their father had put a careless amount of force into both stripping and beating him. Their mother would have to mend those later as well. A low sobbing query made her chest hurt, and she gingerly sat next to her brother on the narrow bed.

Inwardly, she was cursing. Ruff cursed their cousin for every weal she coated in salve, for every hoarse sob that Tuff couldn’t hold back whenever she touched him.

Afterwards, she lied down next to her brother, fingers gently carding through his hair. He hitched and whined at that, curling closer to hide his face in her shoulder. Eventually she drifted off, though her sleep was interrupted every so often by a quiet whimper as Tuff shifted his hips on the bed.

If she’d only just been a little ruder to their cousin, Ruff thought, maybe she could have stopped it from happening. She’d been too nice so far. 

She had to fix that.  
—–

Gruffnut showed up one year completely out of the blue - in the middle of the family's Snoggletogg feast instead of his usual time in autumn. Deceit and flattery oozed from his mouth like a wound, and for some reason every adult lapped it up as though it were honey.

Ruffnut fumed, tasting only vinegar, especially when Tuff (hiding slightly behind her at their cousin’s unexpected arrival) seemed to warm up to him.

She was eleven, the family was low on gold and food, everyone was hungry but trying to make the best of things … and here was this lying son of a jackal, doing absolutely nothing in return for all the food he was stuffing in his face.

Up until that year, Gruffnut had always ignored her, preying on her impressionable brother’s naïveté instead. That changed the year she caught him alone with her twin, trying to divulge him of his new dragon-tooth necklace.

A surge of pride and relief went through her heart as Tuff refused, shaking his head. He apologized, but despite Gruff’s entreaties, stood firm.

“I can make one for you next year, if I kill a Terror,” Tuffnut assured him, fiddling with the tooth, on its leather cord around his neck. “The teeth are small, but really cool. But … I like this one. It looks exactly like Ruff’s and our Uncle Hagelin said it came from the same dragon that he killed.”

Finally, he was sticking up for himself.

Gruff's face had gone a little cold. His sudden smile didn’t make things any better. 

“Hey, look, it’s just a dragon tooth. Do you know how easy those things are to kill? I kill at least three a day out there while traveling. You know, it’s a shame. If you had just given that to me, I would have brought you back a whole dragon skull, with horns attached. Could’ve had a really nice helmet.”

Tuffnut winced, unsure, then caught sight of his sister as she stepped around the elderberry shrubs that were shielding her. He looked to her for support. She folded her arms and looked evenly back at him - sternly encouraging, but definitely on his side.

“No, cousin. I’m sorry. Thanks for the offer. I think you deserve an awesome dragon-skull-helmet more anyway.”

Gruffnut said nothing, looking stunned. Tuffnut took that as his cue to walk closer to Ruff. She took her twin’s hand.

"Bye, cousin Gruffnut,” she said. It was always good to be ladylike, especially to people who didn’t deserve it. Her own mother had said told her that. “Have a safe trip to wherever you’re going.”

They headed back to the house but didn’t get far before something dark and heavy collided with her brother’s head, crumpling him. Ruff saw red on his skull, staining his hair and face and the surface of a fist-sized rock laying in the grass.

Tuff’s eyes were squeezed shut, mouth open in a scream, too breathless with pain to vocalize it.

“Wow, weird. That rock just came out of nowhere,” Gruffnut shrugged. He smirked at her as she looked up.

There was a scream after that, a primal one that sent several adults running to its source.

Her strongest uncle managed to pull her off Gruffnut, but it was nevertheless a chore separating her teeth from the boy’s ear, and handfuls of his bloody hair from her clenched fists. 

“I hate you! And I also curse you forever and ever! May Odin twist every path you walk on, may Loki send trolls to gnaw your bones and dragons to burn the flesh off your stupid ugly butt-elf face –”

There was a harsh slap to her cheek. Ruffnut glowered at Aunt Hazelnut’s red face, but she bit her tongue.

“My girl,” the woman scolded, mopping at her own sweating face. “You watch that mouth of yours and the harm it does to your own kin! You’ve bit him bloody, I’ll not have you wishing such horror on him! He’s all I have since his father died!”

This ended in a sniffle, then a wail, and Aunt Hazelnut was swept away into the comforting arms of other female kin. 

Oh, gods …

Ruff ran to her brother, who lay ignored and still curled over on the ground, the right half his face streaked with tears and blood. It was all coming from his scalp, where the rock had torn flesh. Scalp wounds bled ridiculously long, but at least he wouldn’t need stitches. 

She looked up defiantly at the next adult who approached them, but it was only their mother, Madge. She knelt by Tuffnut, looking over the damage.

“Come on, boyo, let’s get you cleaned up. You’re both to take your suppers in your room.”

“But Mom-” Ruff argued, beseechingly.

“What, you want to stay downstairs? Listening to all that?” She jerked a thumb behind her shoulder, where Aunt Hazelnut and Gruffnut both had a seemingly endless supply of tears and shoulders to cry on. Ruff rolled her eyes when she heard him carrying on about never having known his father.

“Best thing is for you two to lay low and let everyone be cold to you in the morning before they leave. They’ve got an entire year to get over it.”

Their mother only ever made sense, and even if she didn’t approve of Ruff’s unladylike actions, they were still Vikings. They were still young and learning. 

And sometimes learning involved unleashing absolute hell on a bully.

—-

Gruffnut apparently recovered fastest, showing up halfway through an early summer wedding between a Nutt and a Hofferson.

With the exception of Astrid (home with the measles, poor thing) Gruff charmed a few of the Hoffersons as well as his own family. And yet again - despite the fact Tuff couldn’t see too well out of his right eye anymore - her brother was aching for a chance to make amends with his cousin. 

For her part, Ruff refused to let Tuffnut out of her sight, glaring at their cousin the whole time. Her arms were crossed tightly across her chest as she followed the group and her brother to some swimming hole on the island. 

As Ruff glared at the back of her cousin’s head, Tuffnut prattled on about some awesome dragon slaying he’d witnessed last week from their bedroom window (He’d cried the whole time, actually, hiding his face against Ruff’s shoulder, then made her promise to never tell).

Gruff was only half listening, grunting with interest to everything Tuff said without distinction. He was walking towards the sinking golden sun, surrounded by light as though he were some Baldur-blessed hero. It was unfair, how he could look so worthy, when he wasn’t.

While Tuff was yapping obliviously at his heels, Gruffnut turned to look at Ruffnut appraisingly. She couldn’t help but glare and curl her lip up a little.

As the others stripped down to their underthings to swim, Ruff reluctantly joined them and pulled off her tunic. She left her leggings on only, not yet having any chest to speak of, and waded into the water. 

A form broke the surface unexpectedly and Gruffnut was rising before her like a demented nokken, wrapping her up in a wet hug.

"There’s my favorite Nutt!” he smiled. “How’ve you been, Ruff?" 

He was rubbing her back, making her skin creep. "Hands off, _cousin_ ,” she spat, shoving at him. Gruff yelped as he almost slipped. 

“Hey, careful, its mossy over here. Wouldn’t want you to slip.” He gallantly offered his hand, with a charming smile, to lead her safely into the creek. 

When she refused to take it, he moved closer and pulled her into the water by her hips. She tensed, ready to hit him, not understanding why she had frozen up. 

“I’ve been thinking of you, Ruffnut. Even after you hit and bit me. You know, I guess I deserved some of that. Not all of it, but maybe just a tiny bit. I’ve always said you were the better twin anyway, so I guess I can forgive you.”

“Huh. Not sure I can say the same about you,” she replied coolly. “You know, Tuffnut can’t see that well out of his right eye, ever since I had to kick your quote, 'deserving’ ass.”

Gruff didn’t even acknowledge that. “You know, I like summer. It’s hot, so you get to go swimming.” He leered at her. “And pretty girls wear a lot less, so you get to see even more of them.”

Ruff wrapped her arms around her bare torso, uncomfortable and suddenly wanting her shirt back on.

She was saved when the ball of pure energy and joy known as her twin slammed into her cousin, knocking him into the water. Tuff had tackled Gruff, spreading a game the others had started. Now Gruff wour be expected to tackle someone else – at least once he resurfaced.

Ruff scrambled away up the bank, snatching up her boots and tunic and fleeing. 

She was curled up in a trampled nest of blue forget-me-nots when Tuff finally found her, and she couldn’t stop crying. It wasn’t until her brother asked her what had happened that she realized why she felt so helpless. 

Nobody was going to believe her if she did tell them. Certainly not her family, not even Tuff. Gruffnut would twist her words, make her look crazy and perverted. She couldn’t tell anyone and it was going to get worse. 

Her cousin had given her a choice; tell and be called a liar and hated even more, or let him do anything he wanted and suffer in silence.

She sobbed out loud and hid her face in Tuff’s shoulder. He said nothing, just held her for a while. An hour later, he helped her tie back her hair and carried her boots as they walked back to the wedding revelries.

Ruff didn’t see Gruff or her brother for the rest of the night, but Tuff managed to get her a seat next to the fire beside the Hofferson groom’s sister. The young woman’s name was Selene and she looked like an older Astrid (though she was way nicer). Ruff found her company soothing, even though she wished she knew where Tuff had snuck off to. 

During all the drunken and long-winded toasts, Selene gently combed Ruffnut’s hair and intricately braided it. Plus, thanks to her prime seating, she was allowed every delicacy and dessert that was passed around to the groom’s family. 

As they prepared to journey home, Tuffnut came out of nowhere - eye blackened and lip split, but grinning. He hugged her tightly despite her squawks of alarm.

“Whatever Gruff said to get you so upset is over, okay? He said to tell you he was sorry and he won’t ever do whatever it was again. So now we can all be close and have fun again?”  
She tried not to make a face at the hopeful plea in his tone.

"Then why did he hit you?”

“Oh this?” Tuff looked embarrassed. “After we talked, we rough-housed a little. He wanted to see how hard I could hit him, and then he showed me how hard he could hit me. I think the bruise I left on him is way bigger, though it’ll be gone before I can see it.”

Ruff frowned. She was only ten, but it didn’t sound right. Actually, what it did sound like was a message. 

_Reject me? Then I’ll hurt him.  
_

—–

It really only ever went downhill from there.

Gruff’s demands were silent, murky, and unclear - but Tuff paid the price at every refraction.

The more she built herself up to ignore his awkward and fumbling advances, (was he actually serious, or just messing with her head?!) the more he tore her brother down.

Not even physically so much as mentally.

Everything Gruff said to her brother was like poison, slowly and visibly eating away at Tuff from the inside.

He was worthless compared to his sister, Gruff had told him, unbeknown to her. His father didn’t really like him, but liked Ruff better.

It wasn’t because the family was poor that the twins had to share one of everything; it was because **one** of them wasn’t even wanted. (Guess who wasn’t?)

Ruff was the important twin, Gruff would hiss to her brother, out of earshot. She would be **so much happier** without him, especially when she got married and moved away. Tuffnut was bogging her down, keeping her back. That Astrid girl didn't have any brothers, look how well she was doing? Poor Ruffnut looked as dumb and useless as he did, just by association.

And everyone knew it but _him_. So _sad_ …

It took at least a year and a half to realize **why** her brother was suddenly so standoffish and rude to her. Why he grabbed things out of her hands instead of just asked for them. Why they fought so much. Why he called her names or insulted her or had the odd angry outburst, sounding on the verge of tears each time. 

“I’m worth nothing without you, so that’s why I always have to follow you around!” Tuff had snapped on one such occasion. He’d wiped at his eyes furiously, hiding behind his hair and claiming they were irritated by pollen. 

“It’s not like - it’s not like I wanted to be stuck with you either,” he hitched, almost too low for her to hear.

She could hear him crying that night in his bed, as much as he tried to muffle himself. He choked and sputtered a feeble protest when Ruffnut climbed into his bed and curled around him, but he didn’t push her away.

After that, she stopped letting him go anywhere by himself, especially when Gruffnut was around.

Tuffnut still clung to their cousin’s every word, every backhanded compliment was like a nugget of found gold. Every story was true, everything Gruff did was right and if Tuff didn’t like it, that was his own fault wasn’t it?

“Lay off of him,” Ruff hissed, the next time she caught Gruffnut alone.

“Why? Can’t you see how happy he is? I’m giving him exactly what he thinks he wants.”

“In return for what?” she snorted. “No scratch that. You’re messing with my brother’s head and I don’t care why. Because you’re going to leave him alone.”

“Oh, okay. You mean give him the silent treatment? Show up, not talk to him, act as though he doesn’t exist … I can just see his devastated little face. I wonder what he’ll think when I tell him it was just a prank you and I were playing on him.” 

Gruff feigned a convincing distressed face, and put a hand sheepishly on the back of his neck. “Gee, I feel so terrible. I thought we were all having fun, I had no idea how much it would hurt him.”

Face white with impotent fury, Ruff bit the insides of her cheeks and said nothing.

“Your brother’s actually a lot like a dog, Ruffnut. He doesn’t believe I’d ever hurt him, because he doesn’t want to believe it. So all you’re really doing by ‘warning’ him about me, is more harm than good. Even if it’s not real, can’t you just let him have the illusion of a doting heroic cousin who loves him? Or are you just too selfish for that?”

He’d trained her brother very well. He was starting to figure out ways to train her.

She didn’t know how to undo it herself, but she had to get Gruffnut to stop. 

—–

“Come on, you can do better than that!”

Gruff ducked into Tuff’s blind spot (Ruff wished she’d never told him about Tuff's eye) and slammed a fist into her brother’s kidney, sending him down hard.

“Still can’t take me, huh? It’s no surprise, but I’d thought you’d at least be better than last year.” Gruff moved into stomp on Tuffs hand, but he rolled away in time and staggered to his feet. 

Ruff watched, digging her fingers into the flesh of her arms. She would have intervened by now, but Tuffnut had long ago been shamed into insisting against it. Though heartsick, Ruffnut no longer wanted to fight with him about it. 

It wasn’t much better than watching their cousin beat her brother. Gruffnut wasn’t pulling his punches. Her brother - who still saw him as friend and family - was.

It wasn’t _fair_.

Gruff ended the fight as he always did, pinning Tuff on his back and punching him across the face. Tuffnut grunted, but this time Gruffnut didn’t stop after one.

Ruffnut clenched her fists as he struck Tuff in the face, chest, stomach - harder each time until her brother started to whimper and then wail in protest, putting up his arms to shield his head.

They were both fifteen - it wasn’t hard to get her twin to still openly cry in front of her, but it took a lot of pain before he would cry in front of another man. 

Gruff looked at her pointedly, as he caught Tuff’s flailing wrists and pinned them over his head. He grinned at Ruff before looking down at Tuffnut, who was shivering. Then he hit him again, this time a backhanded slap hard enough to make her ears ring.

"AAAAGH, please!” Tuff wailed. “Ow, ow, ow, stop! You win, I’m sorry, you win-!”

Gruff laughed unkindly. "Wow, really - you’re _begging_? I’ve been beaten up way worse than this, but I never begged. And after one little slap? Maybe I just need to toughen you up some more.“

Gruffnut raised his fist again, making Tuff flinch and try to hide his face. It didn’t help much, and another series of punishing blows had him pleading all over again, openly sobbing. 

She didn’t understand. He’d won. He’d gotten her to just stand there and watch helplessly as he tormented her brother, because otherwise she would only make it worse. Why was he continuing? What did he want? Was it death, perhaps?

"Pathetic,” Gruff chuckled, sounding almost fond. Humiliated, Tuffnut stopped fighting after that, just hitching and trembling. 

Ruff felt a scream bubbling up inside her and didn’t move, because she knew if she interfered, there likely would be an actual murder. Which … really didn’t seem so bad, as Tuff’s eyes rolled up into unconsciousness.

She had never actually killed anyone. Ruff didn’t even know if she could, but the knife in her boot was in her hand now, and then Gruff was suddenly on his back, blade’s edge pressing hard against his throat. Right now, she was willing to find out.

Tuff was a pile of golden hair, blood, and shuddering breaths behind her, but **she** was all teeth and claws, which she dug - very painfully - into Gruffnut’s shoulder. She leaned over to grin in his face.

“Hey, cousin. Hi. Do you know how hard it is to remind myself right now that you’re family?” Her bright grin was unnerving enough to make Gruffnut’s eyes widen a bit.

“Whoa there. Do you know how crazy everyone will think you are if you actually harm me? Especially after you attacked me last time?”

“Oh, I already figured that. Thing is, I’m … yeah, I think I’m okay with being the crazy one. You gotta admit, you pushed me there and now … Here we are!”

“Really? You’re okay with going to jail after they find my poor mangled body in the woods?”

“See, that really depends on if they **do** find a body. I mean, look where we are! Middle of the woods, wild untamed dragons and boars on the loose. Anything could happen to a freshly slaughtered corpse out here. Dragons would get to eat the meaty bits, boars will chew up bones and marrow, packrats hide all the small things - like finger bones and cartilage - in their burrows. I’ll be surprised if any proof you ever existed shows up by the end of the day. Gotta love the Archipelago … it’s not for the faint of heart. You live well here, or die horribly.

"I guess the real question is whether you don’t mind being the dead one. Think anyone will even bother looking? I mean, you were just leaving weren’t you? For parts unknown and ucharted? Mommy’s brave, adventurous little boy!” She cooed, voice going an octave too high and ending on a discordant note.

The knife glinted and made a curious little scrape across his throat. Gruffnut laughed a little unsteadily, and she couldn’t tell if it was because he was frightened. "Well, Ruff, you totally proved your point. I guess I will be leaving now. See you next year?”

“If your skull sticks around, sure. I’ll nail it to that tree over there and visit you from time to time. We can have some yak dung tea, some cakes … Hey do you think your helmet would still look good on your skull? Or should I make you a festive little hat out of something’s entrails?”

She didn’t let him up, but Gruffnut scrabbled away and to his feet. Ruff got up with more grace than she thought possible, and kept walking towards him. 

Gruff shouldered his pack and hurried through the undergrowth, heading for the dock where he could set sail. He kept looking over his shoulder nervously.

She followed him for a while, knife still in hand, not saying a word. Just grinning, eyes too wide, showing all her teeth, head tilted a bit too far to one side. Gruffnut started walking faster. She didn’t turn back until he’d started running as fast as his legs could carry him. 

When she returned to her brother, he was sitting up and curled over, swollen face in his hands. Ruff kneeled down, wrapping her arms around him. Tuff leaned into the embrace briefly, then pulled away, ashamed.

"Is he … Did he leave? What happened? Did I pass out?”

“He knocked you unconscious, bro. He’s a jerk.”

“Don’t say that. He was just teaching me how to live up to my name. You know …” Self-consciously, he started wiping at his face and eyes. “C-Can you do me a favor?”

“Name it.”

“Can you just … Can you hit me more from now on? Really hard, so I get used to it? I don’t want to beg ever again. It’s … cowardly.”

Fuck. She wished she really was crazy enough to have killed Gruffnut. It was good she had convinced him to run off, but that wouldn’t keep the creep away forever. Ruffnut didn’t answer Tuff’s question, instead helping him up to his feet. 

“You won’t _have_ to beg again. Gruffnut and I … we had a talk before he had to leave. Seems since he’s so strong, the next time he wants to fight both of us at the same time.”

“Wait, really? I guess that makes sense. He _did_ say he had the strength of several men. I certainly can vouch for that.”

"Right? I bet I could even rope our cousin Lars into helping. He’d get a nice workout and we could all share our glorious bruises.”

Tuff managed a grin. “I think he’d really like that. Maybe you and I could spar sometimes. To practice.”

"Yeah,” Ruffnut replied, smiling. “Of course. We’ll toughen each other up and then we’ll be ready to help Gruff toughen up. But first, lets go home and eat, huh? I’m starving.”

She put his arm over her shoulders to help him walk. 

If Gruffnut ever showed his face on Berk again, he’d live just long enough to regret it.

Thankfully, it would be three years before she had to deal with him again.

—–

She hadn’t quite managed to keep that vow, but Ruff figured she’d done a fair enough job.

The tea was cool enough to drink now, and she brought both mugs over to Tuff’s bed, sitting beside him as he softly preened Chicken’s feathers. 

Hiccup had put him on bedrest for the next few days, after he and Heather relocated Tuff’s hips, shoulder and ankles. The big bump on his head was worrying too, but Heather assured them all he didn’t have a concussion. He just needed some sleep and relaxation.

Ruffnut was no medic, but she failed to see how one of her mother’s herbal teas could hurt things. It would bring down the swelling, if anything. 

Her own wrist was wrapped up in an ice-cooled bandage. Just in case, Heather had said, though she’d found no breaks. (Honestly who knew the girl could be so motherly? What was next, Dagur coming over to ‘dad-friend’ at them?)

“You okay, sis?” Tuff asked, for probably the hundredth time. He didn’t look at her, probably because his eyes kept wandering guiltily to her wrist.

Her brother was unbelievable; here he was, lying bedridden with bruises slowly appearing all over his body and face like some awful map, and yet worried about her.

Ruff didn’t really mind it though. In fact she loved that he’d solidly kicked Gruffnut’s ass to the curb to save her and their dragon. He seemed better, happier, finally off the Gruffnut train.

And if he _wasn’t_ , well nobody _had_ to tell her brother that the island they’d dropped their cousin off on was now full of migrating Changewings. 

Some time ago, Hiccup had mentioned to her in passing which islands they tended to hop this time of year. And she hadn’t mentioned to Hiccup which island they’d dropped Gruff on for the next few nights.

If he was somehow still there when she flew overhead, she’d take care of it. 

Ruff handed a mug to her twin, and took a deep satisfied sip from her own.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Never been better.”

 

 

 

\- end


End file.
